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Max Payne 3 Will Remain Faithful To Franchise Roots

It's one of our most anticipated titles of 2012, which is why we eagerly read Rockstar's answers to some fan questions.

Perhaps most important is the clarification that the development team is staying true to the franchise's roots. Some long-time fans were a little concerned at the game's direction; i.e., Max is no longer in New York City, he looks a lot older, etc. So will this be a recognizable Max Payne adventure?

Rockstar's answer is simple: yes. After confirming that the very pretty game will be using an updated version of the RAGE engine (with Euphoria as the behavior system), Rockstar had this to say about the setting and style:

"Trust that the streets of São Paulo will be plenty dark and dangerous – we’re being very faithful to the heritage of Max Payne, who is still the same gritty hard-boiled NYC cop now off the force, at his lowest point and plunged into peril in a foreign land. And yes, Max’s signature monologues and Bullet Time® abilities will be back in full effect."

They called it an "interesting challenge" to shift the setting away from New York and in truth, "there was simply nowhere for Max to go in New York after Max Payne 2." We're not quite sure we agree with that (NYC is a big place), but we respect the fresh environment and applaud Rockstar's decision to embrace the "noir" element of the game.

"If anything, it was originally a Los Angeles genre, but to us, ‘noir’ means a range of narrative themes and a certain visual style and we believe Max Payne 3 certainly embodies noir. We hope you will too when you see more and play it."

This is shaping up to be one of the best games of the generation. It seems as if they've got all the appropriate pieces in place; all they need to do is make this bad boy shine with tons of grit. ...wait a minute...what?

I've already got Max pre-ordered. Just playing the waiting game now. The first MP had a great story and the bullet time was hit. The second was good enough but not great. So far, MP3 looks to bring Max back with a bang

wow. max sure has changed. i'm still not so sure about the shaved head/dirty white woman beater combonation. maybe it will grow on me. gameplay is really what matters. it's been so long since i last played max payne. i know it's famous for its bullet time gameplay, but that's been played out. i wonder what new features it will bring to the table.